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Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Squish's Birth Story

I've been working on this post for almost two weeks, y'all! Sheesh! I like to have my little ones' birth stories here on my blog with lots of details so I can relive the experience over and over when I read my blog, so please understand there will be a LOT of info here. :)

Monday, June 12th.

It was our last morning together as a family of five, so we did it up right by enjoying Krispy Kreme donuts in bed while watching cartoons!

Hubs' parents had planned to come over that evening to stay with our older 3 kiddos while hubs and I headed to the hospital to begin my scheduled induction at 6:00 PM. We had planned to eat a big dinner (my last meal!) before going to the hospital, but we ended up taking the kids to a late lunch at Culver's, so I wasn't super hungry. Instead, we popped into Jimmy John's for some sandwiches, chips, and a cookie (for me!), and took them with us to the hospital.

We went up to the registration desk, where Donna got everything situated for us and led us into our room. I, of course, had the joy of changing into the standard issue hospital gown (so chic!) and crawling into bed.

The nurse came in and started my IV and set up the fetal monitor. Just before 7 PM, I was able to enjoy my Jimmy John's -- with little to no concern about my blood sugar numbers! Yay!! My final meal! But even with that, I could only bring myself to eat half of the sandwich... so much yummy bread!

Around 8:15 PM, the nurse placed the Cervidil, a medication used to help dilate the cervix, which would remain in place for around 9 hours. I wasn't allowed to eat or drink or get out of bed for 2 hours after the Cervidil, so I settled in and hung out with hubs and my awesome mama. I had the diffuser going with some lovely lavender throughout our hospital stay, and the room was so quiet and relaxing! Perfect for preparing for a baby's delivery.

My awesome mama! She's been by my side for all FOUR of my deliveries! And was my baby nurse for all but Chase's delivery! LOVE HER.

In addition, I had an adorable pic of my three kiddos to focus on throughout the delivery.

By 10:30 PM, I was able to eat and drink again, so at the nurse's recommendation, I went ahead and ate the rest of my sandwich, most of my oatmeal raisin cookie, and a Sierra Mist! Not even a diet one, either! Whaaaat!?? LOL! I did end up checking my blood sugar an hour later, and it was 145. That actually wasn't the worst ever! Haha!

Tuesday, June 13th.

The nurse removed the Cervidil at 5:20 AM and checked me only to find... NO CHANGE. I was so disappointed! I told hubs I just wanted to go home. It was so frustrating for me to spend that night in the hospital, away from the kids, for the purpose of getting labor started, only to have NO CHANGE. Honestly, I had really wanted to let my labor start naturally this time around, but it was clear that we needed to do the induction at 39 weeks for the safety of the baby. But to have zero change? Ugh.

Around 5:45 AM, I went off the monitors to take a shower, and tried desperately to convince myself everything was going to be okay. Honestly, I knew I would do whatever was required of me to ensure Squish's safe arrival. Even if it couldn't be "my" way.

Just before 7 AM, the nurse started the Pitocin to help get the contractions going. It was such a slow process. My inductions with LO, Chase, and E all started pretty much the same: 39 week inductions requiring Cervidil overnight with no big change, then hours and hours of Pitocin to slooooowwwwwlllyyyy kick labor into gear. So I shouldn't have been surprised at how things were progressing. LO was SO stubborn and didn't make her debut until 11:48 PM. Chase was a sweetheart with his arrival at 3:37 PM. I was hopeful E would outdo his siblings and arrive even earlier than Chase, but he held out until 6:30 PM. So I was figuring that we'd be in for a L-O-N-G day with our little Squish.

Around 11:20 AM, the doctor came in to break my water. I was about 2 cm dilated. The hope was that this would help labor to really pick up.

By 3:30 PM, I was ready for an epidural. Honestly it seemed like FOREVER before the anesthesiologist finally came in to get things going. I was in so.much.pain! While they were prepping the epidural, there was a huge thunderstorm that moved through the area, causing a quick power outage! Not exactly what you want to have happen during this procedure! Additionally, they had me sit with my legs over the side of the bed, which was the worst.position.ever. to combat the painful contractions I was experiencing. Add the obnoxious blood pressure cuff that kept slipping down my arm to my elbow (SO PAINFUL when it constantly kept turning on to check my BP and pinching my skin!) and all of this added up to the Perfect Storm of PAIN!!!

Now, if you've been reading my blog for awhile, you would know that I keep it private in that I don't post our actual names (other than Chase's), and I NEVER post pictures of myself. However, I'm making the decision to share one here. Hubs was a GEM with my camera during Squish's delivery. In fact, took the below picture of me while I was prepped for the epidural. The anesthesiologist's assistant (I'm sure she has a cooler job title than that) was shocked to see hubs taking pictures of me at this moment! He assured her he had my permission to do so - LOL! I wanted to share this picture here because I had documented week after week after week of my belly growth during the pregnancy, and you know there are always ZILLIONS of pictures of new babies once they are born, but there is rarely the photos that depict the process of getting the baby here. I'm so grateful to have this photo!

With the epidural finally on board, I was able to relax and rest a bit in preparation for Squish's arrival. This was awesome, because I had no idea how quickly he'd be making his debut! When the nurse checked me around 3:55 PM, I was at 5 cm. This was waaaaay better than 2 cm! YAY! I was happy to hear that labor hadn't stalled due to the epidural.

Imagine my surprise when my nurse checked me at 5:05 PM and I was COMPLETE. As in, totally ready to get my sweet baby out!!! The nurse called my doctor to let her know it was time, and then she had me get ready to start pushing. Usually there's a doctor present when it's time to push, but I guess the nurse was just trying to see where we were at and how much pushing would be involved to get Squish here. She had me push, and they had literally counted to "4" when she told me to STOP! Squish was crowning and ready to come out. It was a pretty chaotic moment as my doctor and the rest of the delivery team came in and set up the room for delivery.

Once the doctor was in place, I had the green light to start pushing! One and a half EASY pushes later, and HE WAS HERE!!! Talk about love at first sight!

My wonderful mama cut Squish's cord! Hubs has never been interested in doing this (I don't blame him), but when the doctor offered the job to my mom, she was happy to do it!

After Squish arrived, they placed him on my belly for some skin time. Within 20 minutes, he was nursing! And he continued nursing for an hour and a half! I was so surprised and so pleased! My little overachiever! Haha!

His first blood sugar was 51, which was absolutely perfect!

*** Baby Squish ***

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

5:25 PM

8 lbs. 1 oz.

21 3/4 inches

LO, Chase, and E came up to visit us once we were moved into our Postpartum room. They were so thrilled to meet their new baby brother!!!

Chase held Squish twice! He was so very sweet with his baby brother. #love

Proud big sis of THREE little brothers!

I can't remember if LO or Chase had the camera for this next pic, but they got a great shot of E in his Captain America shirt. LOL!

My mom gave Squish his very first bath, just as she did for LO and E. Such a precious and wonderful memory! You can see my little fella was a big fan of the fun! Haha!

We had a surprisingly restful night! Squish had to have a heel stick to check his blood sugar before each feeding for his first 12 hours, and all of them came back great, so we were done with that by 5:30 AM. He ate well, and slept well, too! It was a MUCH better night than it had been with E's one and only night in the hospital.

Wednesday, June 14th.

After a restful night, we had plans to have the kids come back up around lunchtime for more family time together. After lunch, hubs and I started discussing the idea of getting discharged rather than staying a second night. Squish was just so laid-back and easy-peasy that we figured why not head home? We had to be there for at least 24 hours after Squish's delivery because there were some tests he needed to have done after the 24 hour mark, so we knew it'd probably be close to 7:00 PM before we would be able to leave.

Fast-forward a few hours, and Squish successfully passed his newborn hearing screening, his CHD O2 screening (Praise the Lord!), had the blood drawn for his newborn screening and his bilirubin test. The only thing we had to wait on was the results of the bilirubin test, which could take about an hour.